A squeaky toy was possibly the first toy to grab your attention when you were a baby. For centuries parents have cooed, clucked their tongues, or softly whistled to entertain their babies. Rattles of all shapes and materials have had their places as attention-getters, but during the 1940s the rubber, and later, vinyl squeaky toys became the most diverting toy of all. Early rubber squeaky toys were a simple ball with just a hole or a metal whistle disk inside. Later, reed devices were developed to generate different sounds. After the 1940s, soft, pliant vinyl plastic replaced rubber. Today, people can avidly search for the hundreds of colorful rubber or vinyl squeaky toys that were produced by many companies large and small. These simple and diverting toys are now getting the attention of collectors around the country. Squeaky Toys is richly illustrated with over 300 color photographs and is complete with a current price guide.

On the manufacturing shop floor, the principle of "value comes from the production of parts rather than charts" crucially applies when using practical statistical process control (SPC). The production worker should need to enter only a sample's measurements to get immediately actionable information as to whether corrective action (e.g., as defined by a control plan's reaction plan) is necessary for an out-of-control situation, and should not have to perform any calculations, draw control charts, or use sophisticated statistical software. This book's key benefit for readers consists of spreadsheet-deployable solutions with all the mathematical precision of a vernier along with the simplicity of a stone ax. Traditional SPC relies on the assumption that sufficient data are available with which to estimate the process parameters and set suitable control limits. Many practical applications involve, however, short production runs for which no process history is available. There are nonetheless tested and practical control methods such as PRE-Control and short-run SPC that use the product specifications to set appropriate limits. PRE-Control relies solely on the specification limits while short-run SPC starts with the assumption that the process is capable-that is, at least a 4-sigma process, and works from there to set control limits. Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts also can be used for this purpose. Specialized charts can also track multiple part characteristics, and parts with different specifications, simultaneously. This is often useful, for example, where the same tool is engaged in mixed-model production. Readers will be able to deploy practical and simple control charts for production runs for which no prior history is available and control the processes until enough data accumulate to enable the traditional methods (assuming it ever does). They will be able to track multiple product features with different specifications and also control mixed-model applications in which a tool generates very short runs of parts with different specifications. The methods will not require software beyond readily available spreadsheets, nor will they require specialized tables that are not widely available. Process owners and quality engineers will be able to perform all supporting calculations in Microsoft Excel, and without the need for advanced software.

This book showcases the state of the art in the field of sensors and microsystems, revealing the impressive potential of novel methodologies and technologies. It covers a broad range of aspects, including: bio-, physical and chemical sensors; actuators; micro- and nano-structured materials; mechanisms of interaction and signal transduction; polymers and biomaterials; sensor electronics and instrumentation; analytical microsystems, recognition systems and signal analysis; and sensor networks, as well as manufacturing technologies, environmental, food and biomedical applications. The book gathers a selection of papers presented at the 19th AISEM National Conference on Sensors and Microsystems. Held in Lecce, Italy in February 2017, the event brought together researchers, end users, technology teams and policy makers.

For mainstream economics, cultural production raises no special questions: creative expression is to be harvested for wealth creation like any other form of labour. As Karl Marx saw it, however, capital is hostile to the arts because it cannot fully control the process of creativity. But while he saw the arts as marginal to capital accumulation, that was before the birth of the mass media. Engaging with the major issues in Marxist theory around art and capitalism, From Printing to Streaming traces how the logic of cultural capitalism evolved from the print age to digital times, tracking the development of printing, photography, sound recording, newsprint, advertising, film and broadcasting, exploring the peculiarities of each as commodities, and their recent transformation by digital technology, where everything melts into computer code. Showing how these developments have had profound implications for both cultural creation and consumption, Chanan offers a radical and comprehensive analysis of the commodification of artistic creation and the struggle to realise its potential in the digital age.

Optical Fiber Sensor Technology covers both the principles and applications of this technology. Drawing upon leading international experts for authoritative chapters reflecting the present state-of-the-art, the book contains essential tutorial material on the fundamentals of optics and optical fibres, reviews of the underlying technology and present and potential future applications. Extensively illustrated and carefully referenced, this volume will prove an invaluable source for researchers, engineers and advanced students from the fields of optoelectronics/optics and/or measurement and sensors.

Lean is about building and improving stable and predictable systems and processes to deliver to customers high-quality products/services on time by engaging everyone in the organization. Combined with this, organizations need to create an environment of respect for people and continuous learning. It's all about people. People create the product or service, drive innovation, and create systems and processes, and with leadership buy-in and accountability to ensure sustainment with this philosophy, employees will be committed to the organization as they learn and grow personally and professionally. Lean is a term that describes a way of thinking about and managing companies as an enterprise. Becoming Lean requires the following: the continual pursuit to identify and eliminate waste; the establishment of efficient flow of both information and process; and an unwavering top-level commitment. The concept of continuous improvement applies to any process in any industry. Based on the contents of The Lean Practitioners Field Book, the purpose of this series is to show, in detail, how any process can be improved utilizing a combination of tasks and people tools and introduces the BASICS Lean (R) concept. The books are designed for all levels of Lean practitioners and introduces proven tools for analysis and implementation that go beyond the traditional point kaizen event. Each book can be used as a stand-alone volume or used in combination with other titles based on specific needs. Each book is chock-full of case studies and stories from the authors' own experiences in training organizations that have started or are continuing their Lean journey of continuous improvement. Contents include valuable lessons learned and each chapter concludes with questions pertaining to the focus of the chapter. Numerous photographs enrich and illustrate specific tools used in Lean methodology. Suggesting Solutions: Brainstorming Creative Ideas to Maximize Productivity explores the process block diagram tool, how to do a Lean layout and Lean master layout and how to create standard work and visual management systems. The goal of this book is to introduce the balance of the tools and how to proceed once the analysis is completed. There are many pieces to a Lean implementation and all of them are interconnected. This book walks through the relationships and how the data presented can be leveraged to prepare for the implementation. It also provides suggest solutions for improvements and making recommendations to management to secure their buy-in and approval.

This book highlights recent advances in soft and stretchable biointegrated electronics. A renowned group of authors address key ideas in the materials, processes, mechanics, and devices of soft and stretchable electronics; the wearable electronics systems; and bioinspired and implantable biomedical electronics. Among the topics discussed are liquid metals, stretchable and flexible energy sources, skin-like devices, in vitro neural recording, and more. Special focus is given to recent advances in extremely soft and stretchable bio-inspired electronics with real-world clinical studies that validate the technology. Foundational theoretical and experimental aspects are also covered in relation to the design and application of these biointegrated electronics systems. This is an ideal book for researchers, engineers, and industry professionals involved in developing healthcare devices, medical tools and related instruments relevant to various clinical practices.

This book presents the theoretical research and application results of a study on flexible mechatronics (flexonics). Formulating distributed models in both time and spatial domains using a geometric approach, it presents a simple yet practical field-based sensing method for robotics and manufacturing, and illustrates its applications with examples such as exoskeletons, mobile sensor network and intelligent sensing.The book is of interest to researchers, engineers and graduate students in robotics, manufacturing and automation engineering who wish to learn the core principles, theories, technologies, and applications of flexonics.

The key to effective leadership is being fit for the challenge. Leadership is a perpetual boxing match in many respects in which preparation, stamina and skill are required. Only the strongest survive. Every decision and tollgate along the career journey is laden with risk. Those leaders who harness risk to their advantage will land the knockout punch in every fight. The only question is how many leaders will be fit enough for the challenge? The purpose of this book is to provide insight on how risk impacts every aspect of leadership, including the mundane, routine and nonglamorous aspects of leadership. This is important because often the small things can easily turn into big disruptors. Moreover, the end goal is to equip leaders with a journey map and quick guide to win in high-risk environments. Change is the new normal and only constant in today's world. As change increases, so will risk and its subsequent impacts on humanity. This includes leaders, organizations and customers. No one is exempt. In this book, readers learn how to: Determine which career battles to fight and which ones to avoid Prepare to fight the unavoidable challenges along the career journey Leverage risk to choose the right leaders for the team Leverage risk to invest time wisely and avoid wasting it Leverage risk to predict, identify and resolve leadership burnout Risk assess leadership credentials so only those that produce a return are added to the portfolio Risk assess performance outcomes so the path ahead is smooth sailing instead of a rough ride Leverage risk so high performance is a reality instead of a pipe dream Leverage risk to find the right leadership sponsor

Provides leaders with strategies and methods to change the way learning and training occurs for new engineers Takes a holistic view behind the low numbers of women in engineering using a problem solving approach centered on Lean Development (LD) Provides a direct comparison with the field of STEM and medicine and how the methods of training and learning can help minimizes bias and increase gender confidence Explores the lack of written knowledge (reusable knowledge) and uses methods of Lean Development (LD) to level the playing field between men and women Highlights the critical need for new female engineers to have access to mentors using technical coaching methods

Provides leaders with strategies and methods to change the way learning and training occurs for new engineers Takes a holistic view behind the low numbers of women in engineering using a problem solving approach centered on Lean Development (LD) Provides a direct comparison with the field of STEM and medicine and how the methods of training and learning can help minimizes bias and increase gender confidence Explores the lack of written knowledge (reusable knowledge) and uses methods of Lean Development (LD) to level the playing field between men and women Highlights the critical need for new female engineers to have access to mentors using technical coaching methods

The key to effective leadership is being fit for the challenge. Leadership is a perpetual boxing match in many respects in which preparation, stamina and skill are required. Only the strongest survive. Every decision and tollgate along the career journey is laden with risk. Those leaders who harness risk to their advantage will land the knockout punch in every fight. The only question is how many leaders will be fit enough for the challenge? The purpose of this book is to provide insight on how risk impacts every aspect of leadership, including the mundane, routine and nonglamorous aspects of leadership. This is important because often the small things can easily turn into big disruptors. Moreover, the end goal is to equip leaders with a journey map and quick guide to win in high-risk environments. Change is the new normal and only constant in today's world. As change increases, so will risk and its subsequent impacts on humanity. This includes leaders, organizations and customers. No one is exempt. In this book, readers learn how to: Determine which career battles to fight and which ones to avoid Prepare to fight the unavoidable challenges along the career journey Leverage risk to choose the right leaders for the team Leverage risk to invest time wisely and avoid wasting it Leverage risk to predict, identify and resolve leadership burnout Risk assess leadership credentials so only those that produce a return are added to the portfolio Risk assess performance outcomes so the path ahead is smooth sailing instead of a rough ride Leverage risk so high performance is a reality instead of a pipe dream Leverage risk to find the right leadership sponsor

This book encapsulates and highlights the most recent innovations, breakthroughs, and comparisons of advanced sustainable manufacturing and material processing techniques for high-performance materials applications with a focus on sustainability and using conventional available methods. Sustainable Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Processing: Methods and Technologies addresses the various sustainable manufacturing and materials processing techniques for advanced materials. It discusses advancements in conventional and non-conventional techniques used in casting, joining, drilling, surface engineering, sintering, and composite manufacturing. The book focuses on a wide range of manufacturing techniques and materials processing technologies along with their benefits, limitations, and sustainability quotient. The conventional and advanced processes are compared in parallel to understand the need for advanced methods in manufacturing technology. This book is helpful to academic scholars and commercial manufacturers in giving them a first-hand source of information on sustainable manufacturing and material processing technology.

Micromachined Ultrasound-Based Proximity Sensors presents a packaged ultrasound microsystem for object detection and distance metering based on micromachined silicon transducer elements. It describes the characterization, optimization and the long-term stability of silicon membrane resonators as well as appropriate packaging for ultrasound microsystems. Micromachined Ultrasound-Based Proximity Sensors describes a cost-effective approach to the realization of a micro electro mechanical system (MEMS). The micromachined silicon transducer elements were fabricated using industrial IC technology combined with standard silicon micromachining techniques. Additionally, this approach allows the cointegration of the driving and read-out circuitry. To ensure the industrial applicability of the fabricated transducer elements intensive long-term stability and reliability tests were performed under various environmental conditions such as high temperature and humidity. Great effort was undertaken to investigate the packaging and housing of the ultrasound system, which mainly determine the success or failure of an industrial microsystem. A low-stress mounting of the transducer element minimizes thermomechanical stress influences. The developed housing not only protects the silicon chip but also improves the acoustic performance of the transducer elements. The developed ultrasound proximity sensor system can determine object distances up to 10 cm with an accuracy of better than 0.8 mm. Micromachined Ultrasound-Based Proximity Sensors will be of interest to MEMS researchers as well as those involved in solid-state sensor development.

This book provides a detailed instruction to virtually reproduce the processes of Additive Manufacturing on a computer. First, all mathematical equations needed to model these processes are presented. Due to their flexibility, meshfree methods represent optimal computational solution schemes to simulate Additive Manufacturing processes. On the other hand, these methods usually do not guarantee an accurate solution. For this reason, this monograph is dedicated in detail to the necessary criteria for computational solution schemes to provide accurate results. Several meshfree methods are examined with respect to these conditions. Two different 3D printing techniques are presented in detail. The results obtained from the simulation are investigated and compared with experimental data. This work is addressed to both scientists and professionals working in the field of development who are interested to learn the secrets behind meshfree methods or get into the modeling of Additive Manufacturing.

This book covers all major aspects of cutting-edge research in the field of neuromorphic hardware engineering involving emerging nanoscale devices. Special emphasis is given to leading works in hybrid low-power CMOS-Nanodevice design. The book offers readers a bidirectional (top-down and bottom-up) perspective on designing efficient bio-inspired hardware. At the nanodevice level, it focuses on various flavors of emerging resistive memory (RRAM) technology. At the algorithm level, it addresses optimized implementations of supervised and stochastic learning paradigms such as: spike-time-dependent plasticity (STDP), long-term potentiation (LTP), long-term depression (LTD), extreme learning machines (ELM) and early adoptions of restricted Boltzmann machines (RBM) to name a few. The contributions discuss system-level power/energy/parasitic trade-offs, and complex real-world applications. The book is suited for both advanced researchers and students interested in the field.

This book highlights some of the latest advances in nanotechnology and nanomaterials from leading researchers in Ukraine, Europe, and beyond. It features contributions from participants in the 6th International Science and Practice Conference Nanotechnology and Nanomaterials (NANO2018) in Kiev, Ukraine on August 27-30, 2018 organized by the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, University of Tartu (Estonia), University of Turin (Italy), and Pierre and Marie Curie University (France). Internationally recognized experts from a wide range of universities and research institutions share their knowledge and key results on material properties, behavior, and synthesis. This book's companion volume also addresses topics such as nanooptics, energy storage, and biomedical applications.

Unique selling point: * Brings together insights on various fields, and how IoT and AI combined can help bring about sustainable living Core audience: * Researchers and academics - worldwide applicability Place in the market: * Gives a more comprehensive overview of the potential applications of IoT and AI for sustainability than other books on the market

This book describes the importance of heat transfer in heat exchangers, and fluids properties play a vital role to increase heat transfer rate translating the size of the equipment and cuts in the capital and running cost in the long term. Nanofluids applications in heat exchangers will help to improve the thermophysical properties of the fluid and therefore heat transfer. And, this book explains the enhancing mechanisms of heat transfer by employing nanofluids in heat exchangers. A critical discussion will enable to estimate the pros and cons of such fluids in different types of heat exchangers. Prevailing working conditions for short- and long-term implementation of various types of nanofluids will be discussed and introduced to the readers. This book helps the researchers, scientist and academicians working in the domain to be able to get a comprehensive knowledge at one place regarding the preparation, properties, measurements, data reduction, characteristics and applications of nanofluids in heat exchangers.

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is regarded as a sophisticated concept that helps us understand the world of manufacturing. It evolved from the system of mass-producing cars, established by Ford, and the Japanese have since endeavored to make their own universal production system. Though much has been accomplished, TPS' progress is a continuous process. The theme of this book is how to understand and learn TPS. There is a TPS concept that seems to elude many, and that is that manufacturers should be able to make a product available at the moment a customer comes and asks for it. There are various ways and various tools that can be used to pursue the ideal state, and therefore we need to focus on the basic principles of TPS. This book tries to explain those Toyota Production System concepts that may otherwise be elusive. This book focuses on the factory to help readers understand the fundamental ideology of TPS. The main character started his career as a technical expert in the R&D division of an automotive Company and eventually becomes an Instructor of TPS. His broad career in companies is used to vividly describe the form of the Toyota Production System. To explain the growth of apprentices of various titles and positions, this story is woven with several short stories presented from the perspective of the main character, who grows from being a group leader to section leader to manager to general manager. Essentially, this book describes the Toyota Production System as based on the philosophy: "Always sketching out and pursuing the ideal state of manufacturing."

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is regarded as a sophisticated concept that helps us understand the world of manufacturing. It evolved from the system of mass-producing cars, established by Ford, and the Japanese have since endeavored to make their own universal production system. Though much has been accomplished, TPS' progress is a continuous process. The theme of this book is how to understand and learn TPS. There is a TPS concept that seems to elude many, and that is that manufacturers should be able to make a product available at the moment a customer comes and asks for it. There are various ways and various tools that can be used to pursue the ideal state, and therefore we need to focus on the basic principles of TPS. This book tries to explain those Toyota Production System concepts that may otherwise be elusive. This book focuses on the factory to help readers understand the fundamental ideology of TPS. The main character started his career as a technical expert in the R&D division of an automotive Company and eventually becomes an Instructor of TPS. His broad career in companies is used to vividly describe the form of the Toyota Production System. To explain the growth of apprentices of various titles and positions, this story is woven with several short stories presented from the perspective of the main character, who grows from being a group leader to section leader to manager to general manager. Essentially, this book describes the Toyota Production System as based on the philosophy: "Always sketching out and pursuing the ideal state of manufacturing."

This is an illustrated history of Australian manufactured toys from 1900-1965, drawing on the authors authoritative collection. The book documents the production of each toy with beautiful colour photographs accompanied by relevant text about the toy and manufacturer.

1. Learn best practices for every facet of management 2. Learn what type of leader you need to be to succeed 3. Maximize employee engagement and retention among staff 4. Develop your staff's talent to full potential 5. Learn where the future of management is headed

Highlights a clear and concise presentation through adequate study material Follows a systematic approach to explicate fundamentals as well as recent advances Incorporates various case studies for major topics as well as numerous academic examples Uses simple, lucid, and a richly annotated writing style targeted at student readers Offers an exhaustive repertoire of Engineering Pedagogy and its application to the current education system

Provides an overview of the role engineering plays in climate change and environmental pollution Presents an updated overview of Green Engineering focusing on green technology Innovations Explores energy management strategies Discusses green communication technologies, green computing technologies, green smart buildings, green smart lighting, green smart mobility management, fuel-efficient transportation, paperless offices, energy efficiency measures, waste recycling, etc. Identifies the development of sustainable plans and programs at the urban level within the current legislative framework